Publications Details

Characteristics of Cryogenic Hydrogen Releases Under Unignited and Ignited Conditions

Hecht, Ethan S.; Panda, Pratikash; Chowdhury, Bikram R.; Ye, Dongmei Y.

Hydrogen is increasingly being used in the public sector as a fuel for vehicles. Due to the high density of hydrogen in its liquid phase, fueling stations that receive deliveries of and store hydrogen as a liquid are more practical for high volume stations. There is a critical need for validated models to assess the risk at hydrogen fueling stations with cryogenic hydrogen on-site. In this work, a cryogenic hydrogen release experiment generated controlled releases of cryogenic hydrogen in the laboratory. We measured the maximum ignition distance, flame length and the radiative heat flux and developed correlations to calculate the ignition ditance and the radiative heat flux. We also measured the concentration and temperature fields of releases under unignited conditions and used these measurements to validate a model for these cryogenic conditions. This study provides critical information on the development of models to inform the safety codes and standards of hydrogen infrastructure.